Chris selected as K12OnlineConference keynote speaker Each year the K12OnlineConference provides tremendous professional development for free, and entirely online. This year, they have selected me as one of their keynote speakers. I am thrilled to have been chosen and look forward to participating in the conversation. Read the full post announcing all the keynote speakers here.
Two quick links on Cognitive Load Theory I've been fielding lots of questions lately about Cognitive Load Theory. Here are two quick links that may be useful. First is an article talking about the practical implications of CLT on the design of learning. The second are some "recent" (as of 2003) developments regarding CLT. Happy reading! Update: I clarified the second...
Practical advice on kids and Android app development After hearing about my students' success developing an Android app, I've gotten several emails asking for more details as to how I practically worked with my kids. Here are some pointers that I offered to the first person that emailed me, perhaps they are of some use to you. Please note that your mileage may vary. It's ok to not be...
Publishing an App Inventor app to the Android Market As I mentioned earlier, my students and I published an Android app to the Android Market. See those links for more information on the background. This post is decidedly technical. First, once we finished the coding process, we packaged the app for to download to the computer. This is an option in App Inventor. This downloaded an .apk file....
Designing and publishing an Android app with kids This post is designed to provide some context around how/why we decided to build this app. The more technical details of the code and how we published it will come in a future post. My students and I recently completed and published an Android app, and here's how we did it. First, the genesis for this goes back to a question I asked...
Oct
27
Category : Educational Technology, Featured, General
Each year the K12OnlineConference provides tremendous professional development for free, and entirely online. This year, they have selected me as one of their keynote speakers. I am thrilled to have been chosen and look forward to participating in the conversation.
Read the full post announcing all the keynote speakers here.
Aug
22
Category : Educational Technology, General, Software
I’ve become disillusioned with Moodle lately and this summer I made the decision to abandon it in favor of a new solution. Here is the process that I went through to make the decision.
1. Ever since I upgrade from Moodle 1.9.x to Moodle 2.0, I’ve been displeased. I was hoping for the new release to bring me new features and new ways of extending the learning into cyberspace. All it brought me was pain. The upgrade itself took hours, and required lengthy trips into the user support forum. I don’t mind that kind of work, but I have to wonder if my time isn’t better spent elsewhere.
2. Version 2.0 is a design nightmare. The collabsible menus are awful, and the site still feels like Web 1.0. The more I used it, the more I realized it was time for a new solution.
3. I had issues with the number of concurrent users. I moved from my shared hosting account to a virtual private server and still could not get any more than about 10 concurrent users. That is too few and was very frustrating. I was facing the need to upgrade further, which was not economically feasible.
So I went looking for something new. I looked at Instructure’s Canvas, but quickly figured out that it is not designed for students as young as mine (by their own admission). I also spoke to the kind folks at Schooltown, but by that time I had already settled into my new solution, which I am thus far quite pleased with.
But first, it’s worth noting that I wanted something not free. I want to pay for it. I want the right to call and fuss and get help from the folks who work there.
So let’s talk about my new solution
I’ve been using Haiku Learning for a month or now and have been pleased. It has some limitations that frustrate me but the folks there have been very open about their DNA.
And I’m paying for it. I’m paying a bit less than five US dollars per month and I get what I need. I like the features that it has, including
We shall see what the future holds, especially as I begin to use it with kids. After all, they’re the ones who will help me really decide whether to continue to use Haiku or not.
May
23
I’ve been fielding lots of questions lately about Cognitive Load Theory.
Here are two quick links that may be useful. First is an article talking about the practical implications of CLT on the design of learning.
The second are some “recent” (as of 2003) developments regarding CLT.
Happy reading!
Update: I clarified the second article, it’s not all that recent.
Mar
09
I have been encountering a particular issue using Android App Inventor recently. The error message says:
error your build failed due to a server error in the AAPT stage
It turns out this was caused by having too many extra images. Once we removed the additional unused images the problem went away.
Perhaps this will help someone.
Feb
04
I am working with a brand new class called Media Tech. Kids have naturally divided into groups based on interest, and for most all of their interests I had tools available that they could work with. For example, one group wanted to make videos, and I handed them cameras and a laptop and sent them to find a place to work. One group, however, wanted to make their own video games. I didn’t have an easy answer for them, so I asked my colleagues through Twitter.
Here are the responses, perhaps the resources will be useful for someone else wanting to help kids build video games.
Dec
30
I’ve noticed lately that some of my colleagues online have a very large number of followers. Not to assign them a nefarious motive, but I wondered if folks really check out followers to determine whether they’re real people or spammers. It’s a question that interested me, and just for kicks I sent it out to Twitter. Here are the 15 or so responses that came in within an hour. Looks like most folks do check it out.
Nov
11
I have a problem and I need some help.
My school has given me a group of kids and told me that I needed to teach them about technology. I have lots of thoughts, but really want some outside feedback.
I’ve created a public Google Doc, would you mind visiting it and giving me some feedback/thoughts/help?
Thanks..
Chris
Mar
27
UPDATE: I just tried this again and it works fine (as of November 9, 2011). One change from the instructions below. If you are getting the Hello World message, you likely added a new application using Google App Engine Launcher (a program you install in the instructions). To fix this, simply click Add an Existing Application and browse to where you unzipped and edited the files. Then deploy. Happy calling!
I often find myself wishing I could schedule phone calls using my Google Voice account. If this were possible, I would not have to worry about being at the particular phone that has the Caller ID my caller anticipates. For example, let’s say I want to schedule a call with my dissertation advisor/mentor. In his phone, the number that is saved for me is my Google Voice number. This is partly so that I can easily record calls with him since there is so much dense information being discussed. He has agreed to allow me to do that any time, and Google Voice has a pleasant warning that call recording has begun.
Since he is a busy professor, we often schedule calls around his flexibility. Let’s say we wanted to schedule a call for a certain time one afternoon. This means that I have to remember, usually with some sort of calendar reminder. This is easily accomplished by using the reminders in Google Calendar. But what if Google Calendar could dial the number for me, too? That would make things a bit easier and my life a bit more productive.
Enter GVCallScheduler. GVCallScheduler allows you to do just that. You enter a certain code with the number to be called, and it initiates the Google Voice call for you at the scheduled time. So now instead of me having to manually dial my professor’s number at the designated time, the call happens automatically. Easy!
(NB: All links open in a new window to make it easier to work on it while not losing this page)
1. Sign up for an account with Google App Engine. This should be as easy as entering your existing Google account password.
2. Create a new application by clicking create an application. 
3. Name your application something memorable, and write down the name.
4. Download the Google App Engine SDK (Software Developer Kit) for Python. Make sure you download the Python one, not Java. Download whichever one works for your computer, be it Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux. The rest of this post uses Mac OS X as an example but the instructions do not differ for either other OS. You need to install the software also. You’ll need this later on.
5. Download the latest GVCallScheduler code.
6. Unzip the zip file. I unzipped it into a folder on my desktop to make it easy.
7. Open the folder and edit the file called config. The file will appear not to have a file extension. That’s ok, we need it that way. On Mac OS X I used Textedit to edit it. On Windows, I used Notepad or Notepad ++. Any of the above are fine, just make sure it does not append a file extension when you finish editing. Here are two screenshots to help you see a better explanation and an exemplar. (click to make them larger)
8. Edit the file app.yaml making sure to enter the exact name of your new app. This is what I told you to write down in step 3. Enter only the name, not the rest (i.e. if you named it coolcalls, enter just that. DO NOT ENTER coolcalls.appspot.com).
9. Minimize your web browser. Open the Google App Engine SDK. You installed this in step 4. Your screen will look something like this.
10. Click File -> New Application. Name the app the same name you called it earlier when you created it online. Click Choose to navigate to the folder you unzipped in step 6.
11. Click Deploy on the Google App Engine SDK main screen. You should see a terminal window (or cmd window) running commands. This takes a minute or so. Be patient.
12. Visit your app page by typing in http://YOURAPPNAME.appspot.com – you will need to authorize it once.
13. Refresh your app page (YOURAPPNAME.appspot.com) and it should say “GVScheduler is up and running – OK…”
Now that you have it set up, we need to walk through how to schedule calls.
Simply add a calendar event at whatever time you want the call to originate. Add this phrase to either the title or description.
GVCall=phonenumber
In this format GVCall=18035551212
You will notice my screenshot doesn’t use that, but it’s a good idea.
So that’s how to schedule calls with GVCallScheduler! Good luck. If something doesn’t work, read the directions again. If it does work, let me know in the comments.
Mar
19
Category : General
I recently gave a presentation to a group of technology-learning educators in Mexico through a program called Jornadas Tic. Here is the video of the presentation, if you are interested.
II JornadasTIC Chris Craft from Mayeutic on Vimeo.
Webminar: TutorÃa online con aplicaciones 2.0
Mar
11
I’ve been thinking a lot this year about what I should teach kids. After a quick chat with my buddy Nic Finelli I have changed my thinking to where it likely needs to be.
What do I want my kids to know (or be able to do) when they leave 6th grade?
I am thinking this particularly in terms of technology. I know what I want them to do in my Spanish and Latin classes.
But what about tech?
So I turn that question to you.
What should a 6th grader know and/or be able to do when they leave 6th grade?
I am staring down the barrel of a cool new opportunity for the next school year. So this is more than just theoretical, I need to be able to answer this question effectively. So help me out, eh?
